iiiiiil liiMiiiim 



.W348 



i)::i»i';^i.i,si;;^:-"--i;t'ni:-:>;;:/:'i 




:V'i 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



00001741433 





Ip-Ji 























^o' 

^^°^ 










A^'^ 

•^^ '^.e* 












'bV 














^V^ 









^^>.%*' 
















V'tft 




V 





.^o: 



n • 


























-i.^ -^^ 

.^^'^•--•* 



^^ 



'^^. 



% 



-O^ 



# 



"°* 



'it. 



0" 






R E P O E T 



MAPy, TO TIIK 



GEXERAL ASSEMBLY 



STATE OF RHODE ISLAND, 



JANM'ARY SESSION. ISUl 



(Lommissioucrs oii the part of tbc §tatc, 



CONVKNTION OF fOMMISSIOXERS FKOM THE SEVERAL STATES, 
IIKI.I). AT Tin: UEQCEST OF VIUGINIA. 

A T ^^' A S H T N ( i^ TON, 



T-"'<nn-1 h flu>- of T-""*?!-) I'll «!•>"» 1861. 



PROVIDENCE: 
COOKE i DAMELSON, PRINTERS, EVENING PRESS OFFICE, 

1861. 







/yy/^-y^ 



'^^^^ /(ff/(>nf 



REPORT. 



To the Honorable General Assernbh/ of the State of llliode Idand '. 

. Tilt! undersi«^ne(l, Commissioners on the part of this State, ap- 
])ointpd vipon the request of tlie State of Virginia, to meet Com- 
missioners from other States, to eonfer npon tlie hest mode of ad- 
justing the unhappy differences which no\v disturl) the peace of 
the country, i-espectfuUy beg leave to report :- — 

That on' the 4tli day "of February last, at Washington, tlie day 
and place named for the ojiening of the Conference, they met 
Commissioners from other States, and remained -svith them in 
conference until the 27tli day oF February, at Avhich time twen- 
tv-one States were rejireseiited, when, having agreed by a major- 
itv of States to submit to Congress, to be by C!ongress submitted 
t() conventions in the several States, the annexed article in amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States, the Convention 
tinallv adjourned. 

Tliis article, it will be seen, apiilies the old line of oO degrees 
and oO minutes of North latitude to all the present territory of 
the F'nited States, prohibiting slavery North of that line, whilst 
it rec(jgnizes and secures its existence South of tiiat line durmg 
the 'territorial go\ eminent, and provides for the formation of new 
States out of such territory, with or without slavery, as their Con- 
stitutions inav direct. 

As this partition of territoi-v was not disad\ aiitageous. at least 
to the ii-ee States, as it disjiosed of the agitaticm consecpient upon 
a recent decision of the Su])renie Court of the United States 
in a celebrated case, and followed a precedent which had giv- 
en peace to the countrv ui)on this most dangerous subject ot con- 
ti-oversv for upwards of thirty vears, your Commissioners gave 
their assent to it as the best practical solution of all dithculties 
o-rowing out of the territorial question. 



New territoi'V is no further dealt with bv this article than to 
require, except in certain specified cases, a majority of all the 
Senators from each side of said line, to concur in its acquisition, 
whether made bv act of Cono;ress or in- treaty, thus giving to 
each class of States, a check ui:»on the cupidity of the others. 

The other sections of tiie article were designed in ircneral so 
to define and limit the rights, powers, and duties of ])oth Con- 
gress and the States, with regard to the subject of slavery, as to 
j)revent fiirther controversy, and to enable and induce those most 
opposed in opinion and interest, l)y the practice of mutual for- 
bearance to live in peace and amity inider the same Federal Gov- 
ernment. It is believed that in no essential particular will this 
article change the present actual state of things ; its value con- 
sisting in the security therein M'liich it gives to all, and in the 
settlement made by it of present and probable subjects of con- 
troversy. 

In a great practical matter of this sort, your Connnissioner>'i 
deem these results of far more importance than strict adhesion 
to any theory, however plausible in the abstract, and es])ecially 
than to any party declaration of principles of a sectional cast, 
however vehemently itrged, or numerously adopted on either 
side. To deal well and wiselv with the actual and real, and 
whilst consiilting the ]iast, and looking to the probable future for 
guidance, to base his action on what ?.S', comprises the whole duty 
of a statesman ; leaving to political pliilosophers to dream of 
what might have been, or, in the abstract, of what ought to be. 
lieform, it is true, in tliis wav comes slowly, but it comes with- 
out the disturbance of material interests, without the agitation of 
human passions, and without the violent outbreaks which these oc- 
casion — hindering and obstructing its progress in that grand and 
orderly procession of moral causes and effects which ex[)resses 
and marks the providence and government of God. 

It was ajiparent to all, that wliatever may have been the mo- 
tive and origin of the present alarming movement in the ex- 
treme Southern States, the instrument successfully used to pro- 
mote it was the agitation of their peo|)le upon the safety of the 
institution of negro slavery in the States and Territories ; and 
various confiicting opinions with regard to the best course to be 
j)ursued to allay this agitation were elicited in the course of this 
long conference. Extremists were not wanthig on the one hand, 
Avho seemed inclined to construe the anomaly of slavery of the ne- 
gro race, found in the Constitution of a free [)eople, into a general 
rule ; and who ])roposed or voted for projiositions which could 
not be accepted, even though the refusal to accept tlu>m might aid 
in the remainiuii States the cause of secession* Extremists were 



not wanting on the other hand, who were op])Obed to doini;- aiiv- 
thing u]')on the subject of slavery, especially at present, lesT. such 
action should compromise the incoming administration, and the 
Republican party, and even the character of the go^ei-nment it- 
self. Without suspecting the purity of the uioti\es of either of 
these extremists, who beyond d()ul.)t represented the views of 
large and respectable bodies of men in their ditferent sections, 
your Connnissioners found themselves equally unable to -.xm-ce 
with ei tiler. 

They coulil not ignore the fact that seven States Iiad separat- 
ed themselves from the others and set uj) a federal government 
of theii- own : and that these Avere censelesslv agitating the ]ieo~ 
pie of the remaining Southern States l)yinHannnatory speeches 
and writings, skillfully add.ressed to tlieir interests and sympn- 
thies, to induce them to join in this new movement. They could 
not doubt the assurances gi^ en to them bv able and ])atriotic men 
from the States of Maryhuul, Virginia. North Carolina, Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, that these attempts u[)on the 
loyalty of the people of their States had met at last with i>ai-ti:il 
-success ; nor, indeed, blind themselves to t1ii> evidences of this 
found in the speeches and votes of individual C'<jmmissioners from 
these AX'ry States, .\bove all, they could not be insensi))le to the 
touching a])jjeals of men, Acnerable in years, distinguished in 
]»ublic service, and whose rei)Utation for al)ility and })atriotism 
was national, to o-ive them something in the shape of constitu- 
tional securitA' witii whicii to allay the startled fears of tiieir con- 
stituents, beat liitck tlie attacks of thri/- enemies and o/o>-, and 
even bring ;igain to their duty thousands of men in the States of 
the extreme South, who had been led astray by the popular 
fears and impulse of the hour, and who, witli tlie loyal but over- 
borne, might well look to them for su})])o)'t. since no other had 
been afforded tliem in the reign of teri-or imder which tliey were 
suffering. In the circumstances in whicii the country was [)laced 
it seemed to your Commissioners that true ])olicy i-an in tlu' course 
of genennis impulse : that in this matter we Avere dealing not 
Avith treason, l)ut with the most devoted loyalty Avhich invoked 
<mr aid against it ; that the concessions Ave made, if concessions 
indeed they Avere, Avere made to our friends that they might be 
strong enough to triumph over their enemies and ours, because 
the enemies of the country. 

If, as is true, in this view of their duty your Commissioners 
stood in the main alone amongst the Commissi(mers from the 
Northern States, and ranged themselves by the side of the Cen- 
tral States of the Union, upon Avhom the weight of the civil strife 
must come if come it must, they need not assure you that no 



(la.starclly fears, no feelings of base compliance, dictated tlie po- 
sition thus taken by tliem. Such motives to action neither be- 
came them nor those whom they represented. It was because of 
generous faith and earnest sympathy ; of ties whicli no distance 
of time or space, and no difference of institutions can Aveaken ; 
which in our fathers' days and our own led our heroes to hazard 
all for all, and at Guilford Court House, and at Eutaw, and 
at Erie, with desperate valor to snatch victory for our common 
country out of the very lap of defeat ; it was because our little 
State, with a warm heart and a ready hand has never failed in 
counsel or deed to stand with the Avhole country in all dangers 
and in extremest disasters, that your Commissioners conceived 
that they best represented her by averting danger from those 
with whom they knew she would hasten to share it. If it be 
true that the time has arrived when our sympathy for an alien 
and subject race has extinguished all sympathy for our own, 
and has hidden from us the ties of a common origin, of common 
interests and of a common glory, then indeed are we separated 
from our brethren, and the curse of slavery has fallen upon us 
as well as upon them. Your Commissioners found nothing in 
themselves to justify them in attributing such sentiments to the 
])eople of the State ; and unitedly recommend the adoption by 
you of the amendment to the Constitution proposed by the Con- 
ference of Commissioners, as best fitted to give security and en- 
sure peace to the coinitry. 

Among the measures strenuously enforced by some of the 
Connnissioners, in lieu of that adopted by a majority, was the 
calling of a general convention. To tliis measure your Commis- 
ers opposed their most earnest and determined resistance. As a 
measure of peace, if for no other reason, because of the long delay 
Avhicli it implied, it would be iitterly fruidess. But the possible 
danger of exposing a Constitution, framed and adopted in the earlier 
and more conservative days of the Republic, t-^ be torn in pieces 
in tiiese times of lawless irreverence and change, seemed to them 
too great for anv wise man willingly to encounter. The very 
equality of the States in the Senate, Avhicli was won by the revo- 
lutionary sacrifices and valor of the smaller States, now almost 
forgotten, Avould, in the judgment of your Commissioners be 
thorebv greatly endangered ; and your Connnissioners earnestly 
represent to your Honorable body that under no circumstances 
should this State consent to a measure which might lead to her 
own extinction. The Constitution of a great country, adopted, 
as this was, on account of diversity of interests and views, Avith 
great difficulty, should be sacred. It may and should from time 
to time be amended to suit a change of circumstances, but ne^-er 



exposed to the danger of being uptorn. It is the syinbol of our 
strength, because tiie ligament of our Union. It lias collected 
about it the reverence of three generations of our people. It is 
the only rallying point noAv for tlie loyalty of the remaining 
States ; the only hope of the restoration of the States which 
have left us ; and in its main features, it should be, as it Avas design- 
ed to be, perpetual. At no time should a general convention 1)0 
invited to invade it ; and, of all times, this, in the judgment of 
vour Commissioners, would be the most dangerous. 

Finally, it will be found upon an inspection of the journal of 
the late Conference of Commissioners, that the undersigned voted 
against many propositions in themselves just and expressive of 
their sentiments and yours^ because inopportune and useless ; and 
against others, because introduced for the very purpose of sowing 
flissension among the Commissioners, and to prevent an agree- 
ment by a majority upcm anything. In this they miist ask your 
candid construction of their conduct, looking to the crisis, the 
occasion, the purpose and effect of the matter upon wdiich they 
were called to act, and their unwillingiiess to hazard an agree- 
ment upon that deemed l)y them necessary, by tacking to it that, 
which, however tiiie. was at least useless, and might in the result 
be dangerous. 

All which is respectfully submitted by 

Samuel Ames, for self and "^ 

Alexander Duncan, 

George H. Browne, V Commissioners, 

William W. Hoppin, | 

Samuel G. Arnold. J 



The Ariicle in AmeitdiueHt of the Constitution of the United 
.Stsites ijioposed by llie Conference. 



ARTICLE XIII. 



Sec. 1. In a]l the present territory of the United States north 
of the parallel of thirtv-six degrees thirty minutes of north lat- 
itude, in^•olulltarY servitude, except in puuislnnent of crime, is 
jn-ohibited. In all the })resent territory south of that line, the status 
of persons held to Involuntary service or labor, as it now exists, 
shall not be changed ; nor shall any law be passed by Congress 
or the Territorial Legislature to hinder or prevent the taking of 
any such persons from any of the States of this Union to said 
territory, nor to ini})air the rights arising from said relation : 
but the'same shall be subject to judicial cognizance in the federal 
courts according to the course of the common law. When any 
territory, north or south of said line, with such boundary as 
Congress may prescribe, shall contain a population equal to that 
requn-ed for a member of Congress, it shall, if its form of gov- 
ernment be republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal 
footing with the original states, with or Avithout involuntary ser- 
vitude, as the constitution of sucli state may provide. 

Sec. 2. No territory shall be acquired by the United States, 
except by discovery, and for naval and commercial stations, de- 
pots, and transit routes, without the concurrence of a majority 
of all the senators from the states which allow involuntary ser- 
vitude, and a majority of all the senators from states which pro- 
liibit that relation ; nor shall territory l)e acquired by treaty, un- 
less the votes of a majority of the senators from each class of 
states hereinbefore mentioned be cast as a part of the two-third 
majoritv necessary to tlie ratification of such treaty. 

Sec. 3. Neither the constitution nor any amendment thereof 
shall be construed to give Congress ])Ower to regulate, abolish, 
or control, within any state, the relation established or re- 
cognized bv the laws thereof touching persons held to labor 
or involuntary service therein, nor to interfere with or abolish 
involuntary service in the District of Columbia, without the 
consent of Maryland and without the consent of the owners, 
or making to the owniers who do not consent just compensa- 
tion ; nor the power to interfere with or prohibit representa- 
tives and others, from bringing with them to the District of 
Columbia, retaining and taking away, persons so bound to 
labor or service ; nor the power to interfere with or abolish 
involuntary service in places under the exclusive jurisdiction of 
the United States within those states and territories where the 



samt' IS established or recognized ; nor tlie power to prohibit 
the removal or transportation of persons liekl to labor or invol- 
untary ser\-ice in any state or territory of the United States to 
anv (jther state or territory'- thereof where it is established 
or recognized by law or usage ; and the right during trans- 
l)ortation by sea or river, of touching at ports, shores and 
landings, and in landing in case of distress, shall exist ; l)ut not 
the right of transit in or through any state or territory, or of sale 
or traffic, against the laws thereof; nor shall Congress have pow- 
er to antliorize any higher rate of taxation on persons held to la- 
i)or or service than on land. The bringing into the District of 
Columbia of persons held to labor or service for sale, or placino- 
them in de])ots, to be afterwards transf(?rred to other places for 
sale as merchandise, is prohibited. 

Sec. 4. The third paragraph of the second section of the 
fourth article of the Constitution shall not be construed to pre- 
vent any of the states, by appropriate legislation, and through 
the action of their judicial and ministerial officers, from enforc- 
ing the delivery of fugitives from labor to the person to wlioni siich 
service or labor is due. 

Sec. 5. The foreign slave trade is hereby forever prohiljitcd ; 
and it shall be tlie duty of Congress to pass laws to prevent the 
importiition of slaves, coolies, or persons held to service or labor, 
into the United States and the Territories from places beyond 
the limits thereof. 

Sec. (J. The first, third and fifth sections, together with this 
section of these amendments, and the third paragraph of the 
>econd section of the first article of the constitution, and the 
third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article there- 
of, shall not be amended or abolished without the consent of all 
the States. 

Sec. 7. Congress shall j)rovide by law that tlie United States 
-ihall pay to the owner the full value of his fugitive from labor, 
in all cases where the marshal, or other officer, Avhose duty it 
was to arrest such fugitive, was prevented from so doing by vi- 
olen(.-e or intimidation from mobs or riotous assemblages, or when, 
after arrest, such fugitive was rescued by like violence or intimi- 
dation, and the owner thereljy deprived of the same ; and 
the acceptance of such payment shall preclude the owner ft'om 
further claim to such fugitive. Congress shall provide by law for 
securing to the citizens of each state the privileges and immuni- 
ties of citizens in the several States. 



54 W 













^0%^^ 
















.^^°^ 
> o. 



'bV 



r-^ .0^^-^^^ 



















:. ^^^0^ :\ 



1^ ♦jI 







V*^^^> <^*'«-*\^* v*^^^> 



.,,•• aP 






*'% 



.' ^v^*' ." 

.<^^% ' 



♦* **^\ 






^4^*^ 















'h^ 



0" ^^«t- 

0-* ^^ 






^o 






'^i^mO^^ ^0 



^^^* 






